Operations Research at
Stanford combines the depth and elegance of mathematics with the
excitement and practicality of engineering like few other programs
do. We combine diverse mathematical disciplines such as control
theory, game theory, optimization, probability, statistics, and the
theory of algorithms, immersing students in an intellectual atmosphere
without boundaries. At the same time, you can be much more than
an armchair theoretician—you can go out and change the way engineering
systems are built, managed, and used. Along with our faculty and
pyour fellow students, you can tackle important questions such as:

—How should I design efficient optimization
algorithms?

—How do I manage an autonomous Internet?

—Are stock options good for my company?

—How can I model complex biological systems
mathematically?

—How should I aggregate data collected from
a sensor network?

—How should digital goods be priced?

—How can data-mining be used to make
decisions?

—What are optimal operational decisions in
a supply chain? A warehouse?

A transportation network?

—What constitutes a
“fair” allocation of resources among competing users of an engineering

system?

—How can I speed up simulations to estimate
the probability of failure of computer systems?

These questions require mathematically deep tools, but cannot be
addressed in isolation from their engineering context. As a
student in the Ph.D. program in Operations Research at Stanford
(located in the Department of
Management Science and Engineering), you are prepared to think
rigorously, but also to appreciate practical considerations. This
combination has led our recent graduates to great success in finding
excellent jobs (both inside and outside academia). As an alumnus
of Operations Research at Stanford, you would belong to a distinguished
community of academicians and industry leaders around the world (see History).

Information on Ph.D. requirements and offered courses can be found in
the section labeled "For Current
Students."

Financial Aid:

A variety of funding packages are available including
fellowships, teaching assistantships, and research assistantships. The
exact details vary from student to student.

Admissions Process:

Apply to the
Ph.D. program in Management Science and
Engineering, and indicate either "Operations Research,"
"Stochastics," or "Optimization" as your field of interest on
your application documents (resume, statement of purpose, etc.).

For Current Students

If you are a Ph.D.
student in the OR
program (or consider yourself an OR-related PhD student), please
subscribe to the OR Ph.D. students e-mail list. To do so, visit
the
Mailman listinfo page for the or-phd-students list.

If you are interested in receiving job postings for OR-related
students, please subscribe to the OR jobs e-mail list. To do so,
visit
the
Mailman listinfo page for the or-jobs-announce list.

Ph.D. Requirements:

Look at the requirements
for a Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering—this
contains both general department guidelines as well as specific course
requirements for the Ph.D. program in Operations Research.
Students who meet the Group I and II requirement of the OR program
automatically meet the departmental breadth requirement in both
"Systems Modeling and Optimization" and in "Probability and Stochastic
Systems" provided that they take courses at Stanford. Depending
on the prerequisites taken at Stanford and the particular Group I and
II courses taken here, students may also automatically meet the
departmental breadth requirements in one or more of the four areas:
Information Science and Technology; Economics and Finance; Decision
Analysis and Risk Analysis; and Production Operations and Management.

Offered Courses:

For a list of courses currently offered, check out the Department of
Management Science and Engineering’s list
of courses in the Stanford course catalog, the Stanford
Bulletin; Operations Research courses are typically numbered 11x,
12x, 21x, 22x, 31x, or 32x. Students in Operations Research will
also typically take courses offered at Stanford in Mathematics,
Statistics, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering.